Pinocchio’s Complex: A mental state in which everything imagined is deemed real
A lonely old man longs for a child so much he constructs him out of wood. The ‘child’ however tries to convince his maker that he is not real. Fearing that his child has been tainted by logic, the old man tries to rescue his child from objective reality by summoning an UFO to take them to fairyland.
Unlike the saccharine-sweet child in the iconic Disney film, the author Carlo Callodi (1826-90) had originally written Pinocchio as an impulsive, rude, selfish and violent individual who met his end hanging from an oak tree.
Pinocchio’s Complex takes its inspiration from this darker original by Callodi. This reinvention of the Pinocchio story focuses on Geppetto (Pinocchio’s father) and the destructive relationship between creator and the created.
Pinocchio’s Complex is a visually charged puppet theatre in the absurdist tradition of Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter.
Produced by The Finger Players
Photo credit: Tuckys Photography
Show duration 1h 7min
DirectorOliver ChongPlaywrightOliver ChongSetOliver ChongSoundDarren NgLightingLim Woan WenPuppetryOliver Chong and Ong Kian SinProps DesignOliver Chong and Ong Kian SinCostumeOliver ChongStarringOng Kian Sin, Judy Ngo & Jo KwekSupported byArts Fund, Hong Leong Foundation, Lee Foundation and National Arts Council SingaporeYear2008Date3 – 5 April VenueDrama Centre Black Box, Singapore
